But when they got there, they were surprised to find their opponents, the Central Region team, already warming up at the venue. The Central Region team, also lodged in Thamel, had reached the venue much earlier because they had been ferried to the covered hall by bus.
“We were given only two rooms and we all had to share a single toilet,” a player from the Mid-Western team said, on the condition of anonymity.
And other players too poured on the grievances. They said that they were not given food on time, that most often they would be given their dinner only after midnight.
“Had we been born in the cities, who knows? We might have performed better.”
- A Mid-West player
- A Mid-West player
The treatmen that the team from the Central Region couldn’t have been more different. The assistant coach of the Women’s Volleyball team from Central region, Uma Gurung, said that she was more than satisfied with the living conditions in her team’s hotel.
“Other athletes say that we the have the best of the available hotels,” she said.
The playing field apparently wasn’t even level to start with. Gurung said that her team members had undergone rigorous training before coming for the games.
“And our players are from schools that have their own volleyball coaches,” she added. The coach of the Mid-Western Women’s team, who is a veteran of two national games, could only come up with a tale of woe.
He said that his team had made it to Kathmandu at their own expenses.
“We did not get adequate training before coming to the National Games, and we had overcome financial hurdles to make it to the regional selections. Our region is the most neglected one,” a player added.
“Had we been born in the cities, who knows? We might have performed better.”
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